Use of synthetic fuel comprising coal treated with liquid binder is known. There are a number of approved binders suitable for use in synfuel plants, the most popular being latex-based. Typically, mined coal is sprayed with a binder compound or mixture, optionally formed into briquets or pellets, and then delivered to the furnace of a synthetic fuel consumer such as an energy producer. Such synthetic fuel treatment plants are made, for example, by Startec, Inc. of Dublin, Ohio. Significant tax credits are available for synthetic fuel producers under strict IRS guidelines, as the product is typically more energy efficient in BTUs produced or the like.
Current plants producing such synthetic fuels, however, are attended by many significant problems. For example, a plant is typically erected on or near an energy producing site on land in a fixed location. Mined coal is delivered to the plants most typically in one or two ways: plants sited along a navigable waterway receive most of if not all shipments by barge; those in landlocked locations receive most if not all shipments by rail. In both cases, the coal is unloaded at a storage site onto ground. The liquid binder product is most typically delivered by over-the road tanker trucks. The coal must then be moved over the ground to load the processing equipment of the sunfuel plant. This process entails heavy equipment and conveyor systems which pose both air and land environmental concerns. Multiple handling equipment is necessary to move the coal from the storage site to the synfuel facility and then to the boilers, ovens or furnaces of the energy producer. Finally, because the synfuel facility is typically erected on or proximate the facility of the energy plant and dedicated to that site, it must meet all the cerfification and other regulatory requirements of the governmental body such as a state and/or municipality having jurisdiction over the location.
There are about 25,000 miles of commercially navigable inland waterways in the United States and it is desirable to provide improved structures and means for supplying synfuel to energy producers situated alongside them. Accordingly, it has been objective of the invention to provide an improved process and apparatus for manufacturing synthetic fuel for use at these sites.
It has been another objective of the invention to provide an improved process and apparatus for manufacturing synthetic fuel.
Another objective of the invention has been to provide improved process and apparatus for making synthetic fuel autonomously from an energy plant in which the fuel will be used.
Another objective of the invention has been to provide improved process and apparatus for making synthetic fuel while avoiding the need for regulatory compliance with the governing bodies having jurisdiction over the energy plant where the synthetic fuel will be used.
Another objective of the invention has been to eliminate ground and surface water contamination by coal delivered to the processing plant.
Another objective of the invention has been to eliminate the overland delivery of coal and liquid binder to a synthetic fuel manufacturing plant.
Another objective of the invention has been to provide an improved synthetic fuel processing plant not fixed or dedicated to the energy facility in which the fuel will be used.
Another objective of the invention is to eliminate the need for construction of land-based foundation structures and the demolition/restoration of the site once the synfuel plant has completed its commitment.
Another objective of the invention is to eliminate the need to dismantle the synfuel plant and move it overland on multiple flatbed trucks to a new location.